Sept. 13, 2021: Grisham dishes on Melania
At 1:25 p.m. on Jan. 6, soon after rioters had broken through barricades outside of the Capitol, Melania Trump received a text message from her then-chief of staff, Stephanie Grisham.\n\u201cDo you want to tweet that peaceful protests are the right of every American, but there is no place for lawlessness and violence?\u201d Grisham asked the first lady.\nA minute later, Melania replied with a one-word answer: \u201cNo.\u201d At that moment, she was at the White House preparing for a photo shoot of a rug she had selected, according to exclusive excerpts of Grisham\u2019s forthcoming book, \u201cI\u2019ll Take Your Questions Now: What I Saw in The Trump White House,\u201d obtained by POLITICO.\xa0\nAnd late last night, lawmakers, Hill aides and tax lobbyists were sending around a five-page memo outlining House Ways and Means Democrats\u2019 proposed $2.9 trillion in tax increases. The hikes would \u201camount to the biggest tax increase in decades, and enough to cover most of what even progressive Democrats hope to spend on their coming \u2018reconciliation\u2019 package,\u201d our tax team colleague Brian Faler writes.\nRaghu Manavalan is the host of POLITICO's Playbook.Jenny Ament is the senior producer for POLITICO Audio.\xa0Irene Noguchi is the executive producer of POLITICO Audio.